Marcus Davis understands this all too well. It’s Auburn’s now decades-long challenge: How can it get a 1,000-yard wide receiver?

Auburn has only had two wide receivers ever reach that mark. Most recently, Ronney Daniels did it in 1999 and Terry Beasley in 1970.

Davis knows this because, for four years, he too was a part of this drought. But his new job may be his best chance so far to end it.

In a slew of hires to reshape a coaching staff, head coach Hugh Freeze brought Davis back to Auburn. To the place he’d played for four years and served as a team captain. To the place where he’d won the SEC and played against Florida State in the BCS National Championship game. And to the place where he’d had his first coaching job, working for two years as an analyst for then-head coach Gus Malzahn.

“I mean, I don’t know the last time Auburn had a 1,000-yard receiver,” Freeze said on the challenge Davis will face. “I don’t. It’s been over a decade, I think. That’s shocking to me.”

Davis’ road to Auburn includes stops at Florida State as a graduate assistant and coaching the wide receivers at Hawaii and Georgia Southern. Davis didn’t have a 1,000-yard receiver at either of those stops, but he did have two come near the milestone — including Nick Mardner who since transferred to Auburn with 913 yards on Hawaii in 2021.

His quick rise to an SEC job now links him with Freeze, who has produced three 1,000-yard receivers since becoming a Division I head coach and a number that have come incredibly close including 993 yards from Demario Douglas at Liberty last season.

But taking this job wasn’t quite about working with Freeze.

“It’s been more than what I expected,” Davis said. “Auburn is Auburn. It’s a great place to be, and I wouldn’t rather be anywhere else.”

From afar, Davis was still an Auburn fan. Asked what it would be like to win a championship as a coach after getting an SEC ring as a player, Davis said it didn’t really matter if Auburn won a championship and he wasn’t a part of it, he’d still be proud.

In his own time at Auburn, Davis had 85 catches for 650 yards and three touchdowns. He never came close to the 1,000-yard mark himself.

Now on the other side — the coach instead of being coached — Davis has another chance. And while Davis hasn’t addressed it directly, Freeze has clearly shown this topic has come up within the hallways of the football facility.

“I love this place, but me being part of it makes me challenge the guys to go get it and get after it even more, because I know the benefits that you can get from it,” Davis said.

So in year one, that challenge starts with a rotation that could include a group as large, when all are healthy, as Shane Hooks, Jay Fair, Ja’Varrius Johnson, Nick Mardner, Jyaire Shorter, Caleb Burton, Omari Kelly, Koy Moore, Malcolm Johnson Jr. and Camden Brown.

It’s a broad, rotational group of receivers that brings together four transfers, four returners who have not seen much of the field in their time at Auburn and the duo of Johnson and Moore who were Auburn’s top two receivers a year ago — including Johnson leading the whole team with just 493 yards last year.

Other than helping produce Mardner’s best season of his college career in 2021 with Hawaii, Davis is now a new coach for all of them in a wide receiver room that already has so much inexperience in the SEC.

“He’s just a good dude, always high energy,” Brown said of his new position coach. “When he’s running, he’s probably cramping while celebrating. But he’s a good dude all over.”

“I would say that Coach Davis is somebody that we can all relate to, he’s been in our shoes before,” Johnson Jr. said of Davis during fall camp. “He makes an effort to make sure that we bond together. Right now we’re sharing stuff about ourselves in the meeting room when we have time. That really brings us closer.”

Outside of Auburn’s first scrimmage where Freeze was quite upset about “loafing” receivers who ran the wrong routes, the group has received a lot of praise as an improved unit compared to last season. Issues still remain as Freeze has described in press conferences since, and it may not all be cleaned up by the first game of the season.

That’s why Auburn is happy to have options. It’s also is why Auburn is unlikely to break the 1,000-yard drought this season.

With so many players in Auburn’s rotation and the likelihood of inconsistency and injuries, there may not be enough yards to spread around. It’s a team that wants to focus on running the ball, too, with such a deep group in the backfield. Davis may be working with a lot of good players at the position, but it remains unclear if anyone will jump out as a true star.

And still, the 1,000-yard milestone is a goal on Freeze’s mind.

That extends to the receivers who aren’t on Auburn’s roster yet, starting squarely with the five-star class of 2024 commitment Perry Thompson. While this year’s chance to break the drought might appear unrealistic on paper, the coming star power is how Freeze truly sees that long journey finally finding its end.

“And I hope every recruit that I’m recruiting for receiver is listening to me,” Freeze said. “We’ve got to change that here, and you’ve gotta change that through recruiting. Those receivers are a priority for us, the ones that are coming into the ‘24 and ‘25 class.”